UMWELT…

Analytical artist – to quote the Italian critic Achille Bonito Oliva – Rero focuses on the codes of our society: considering Art as an alarm system capable of awakening the collective consciousness, he intervenes in public and private spaces to provoke the contemplation of a work of art and its connection with aesthetic and moral order.

His work walks the fine line between urban art and conceptual art finding its inspiration in the culture of graffiti, particularly in the iconic imagery of the first generation of New York taggers.

A complex artist, Rero decodes the different languages of our culture and transposes them in his unique manner to make them more accessible.

“You think you are deleting the word by crossing it out. Do you not know that the line is transparent? It is not the pen that is striking out the word but the eyes that read it”

Edmond Jabès, L’Ineffaçable. L’Inaperçu, Paris, Gallimard, 1980

With a very distinct visual style, Rero explores the realm of representation and its negation.
His interventions always consist of a strikethrough message, with a black line carefully drawn through the upper part of the word, leaving open all possibilities of interpretation.

His antinomic works use the Freudian trick of affirmation through a double negative, positioning them half way between self-censorship and the need to convey a message.

They can appear in the middle of urban areas or in open nature, or written on various surfaces (walls, ruins, building facades, posters, books, white sheets…), Rero’s statements always use the Verdana font that – since its creation in 1996 – has become the most widespread font on the net, in order to convey an average, impersonal prose free of any associations.

The exhibition at the Galerie Paris – Beijing traces the path of this young artist who has now become a major actor on the international scene, especially after his now famous performances at the Centre Pompidou and the Grand Palais in Paris.

The confrontation with the volumes of Victor Horta’s Art Nouveau architecture is an opportunity for the artist to create large-scale in-situ works.

Among the works on display in Brussels, the Nature Morte series: surprising words infused with urban energy but related to the specific context of the natural environment from which they emerge can only be seen today thanks to the photographic document that freezes the ephemeral intervention.
His resin coated books relay an analysis of the impact of the arrival of the Internet on individuals. The web has disrupted the notions of private and public, as well as intellectual property. The ” digital revolution ” has transformed communication: the paper book has become obsolete and the epitome of these disruptions.

In 1909, the biologist Jakob von Uexküll introduced the concept of ” Umwelt “. With this word the German scientist wanted to express a simple but fundamental observation: each organism living in the same ecosystem has its “own” sensorial experience and reacts differently to external stimuli.
Nowadays starting from this concept that finds its roots in biology, communication, and semiotics we can say that individuals, although from the same species, may have a different perception of the universe due to the distorting prism of their senses and their cultural baggage.

The multifaceted nature of Rero’s production is particularly evident in his most recent works resulting from the artist’s latest research on the “negation of the image”. Through his photographs installations, videos and sculptures, the artist expresses his vision of the world and causes us to question the complexity of our epoch.

Born in 1983, Rero has exhibited in many public institutions such as the Centre Georges Pompidou, the Musée en Herbe, the Musée de la Poste, Confluences in Paris, and the Antje Øklesund in Berlin. More recently, his work has been displayed in numerous exhibitions in France, the United States, Italy, Germany, and Switzerland.

To mark the artist’s recent exhibitions in Paris and Brussels, Editions Gallimard (Alternatives) is publishing a monograph on Rero’s work, available at the gallery.